Rob Ford says Ottawa should look at decriminalizing marijuana, but Conservatives won't do it

Mayor Rob Ford says Ottawa should consider decriminalizing marijuana and make “revenue” from it but that it won’t happen with the Conservatives in charge.

The mayor, who admitted to smoking “a lot” of marijuana last year (and a little crack cocaine), made the comments on his weekly appearance on the U.S. sports radio show “The Sports Junkies.”

“I’ve questioned that too sometimes why wouldn’t [the Conservatives] at least decriminalize it and try to get revenue from it,” Ford said when prompted by the show’s hosts about marijuana laws.

“That probably won’t happen up here because we have a Conservative government,” the mayor said. “They’re very strict when it comes to marijuana and any other drugs — so it’s not going to happen here.

“But that’s a debate that has been going on for years up in Canada. We have medicinal marijuana so a lot of people that are sick use it but they won’t legalize it or decriminalize it so I don’t think they are going to ever do it unless the government changes. I don’t see the Conservative government ever letting that happen.”

It is not clear whether Ford’s comment on revenue was an endorsement of legalizing and taxing pot, or in reference to fines paid in relation to decriminalizing the drug.

Last August, Ford admitted to smoking “a lot” of pot, after Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made their own admissions.

At city hall, Mayor Ford denied coming out in support of decriminalizing marijuana.

“I said it’s a federal issue, we have nothing to do with that,” he said, refusing to clarify further. “It’s a federal issue. Go talk to the prime minister. Am I the prime minister now?”

Trudeau said he smoked the drug as an MP several years ago, making the admission as he made legalizing marijuana one of his only policy planks as leader.

The Conservatives have attacked Trudeau’s legalization proposal as promoting pot to children.

“He’s directly delivering a message to children now that recreational drug use is okay,” Justice Minister Peter MacKay said in a statement in November.

However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has left the door open a nudge to the idea of decriminalizing pot.

In August, Harper also said his government is “looking carefully” at the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police proposal to ticket people caught with 30 grams or less of cannabis. The Chiefs suggested prosecuting people for simple possession is expensive and that a criminal record places barriers on future travel, employment and citizenship.

Ford has appeared regularly on The Sports Junkies show since he was stripped of many of his mayoral powers in November. In December he infamously stated that he gives his wife money for Christmas.

“Women love money. Give ‘em a couple thousand bucks and they are happy,” he said.

On Thursday’s program, he confirmed that he gave his wife — the little-seen Renata Ford — a $5,000 cheque.